Posts Tagged ‘mission support/community partnerships’

In his first congressional hearing since being confirmed, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Thursday attempted to make the case to hold a BRAC round in 2015 before a number of critics in the House Armed Services Committee. Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), chairman of the Readiness Subcommittee, pressed Hagel as to whether now is the right time to pursue base closures, given the challenges facing the military, including sequestration, the drawdown in Afghanistan and the pivot toward Asia …

Along with requesting a new base closure round, the Pentagon is proposing further cuts in its civilian workforce as part of new money-saving initiatives included in its fiscal 2014 budget request. The two actions are intertwined, as DOD Comptroller Robert Hale explained to reporters Wednesday. The proposed restructuring of the civilian workforce could result in a 5 to 6 percent reduction from fiscal 2013 to 2018 …

The BRAC round the Pentagon is requesting for 2015 would be patterned after the 1993 and 1995 rounds, Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale said Wednesday, offering a sharp contrast to the sprawling 2005 round and its focus on transformation and realignment. When combined with the $2.4 billion implementation cost officials are projecting for the prospective base closure round, Hale’s description paints a picture of a BRAC process with very little in common with the most recent round …

The Pentagon is requesting a new base closure round in 2015, but in a change from last year’s request for additional BRAC rounds, officials allocated funding in the new budget proposal to cover the upfront costs of carrying out the process of trimming DOD’s infrastructure. If nothing else, the decision to include $2.4 billion over the next five years to pay for a new base closure round should inoculate the Obama administration against accusations that it’s not serious about paring its infrastructure …

An environmental consulting firm is looking at a range of factors that could interfere with missions at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to prepare a plan for addressing encroachment at the installation. The effort is part of an Air Force-wide initiative to identify, manage and address the causes of encroachment. The final product of the assessment is an encroachment management plan, which will include recommendations to preserve the installation’s missions and promote compatible development in the community. Fredericksburg, Va.-based Marstel-Day will consider a variety of factors, including urban growth, noise, air and land space restrictions, air and water resources, and energy development. The Installation Complex Encroachment Management Action Plan is expected to take nine to 11 months to complete, reported the Minot Daily News.

The Air Force on Tuesday began grounding about one-third of its active-duty combat aircraft stationed in the United States, Europe and the Pacific to cope with automatic spending cuts to its operations and maintenance account. The stand-down affects more than a dozen squadrons of fighter, bomber, aggressor, and airborne warning and control aircraft and will eliminate about 45,000 flying hours by the end of September. The move is intended to ensure that remaining units can maintain sufficient readiness through the remainder of the fiscal year …

Reports of BRAC’s death have not been greatly exaggerated, at least according to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. On Tuesday, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said he didn’t expect the Obama administration to request new base closure rounds in its fiscal 2014 budget request since Congress already made it clear last year that it was opposed to authorizing additional BRAC rounds …

Officials at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Northern Virginia and Arlington County have been working together to exchange information about energy usage and discuss new initiatives for conserving energy. For the county, the exchange helps officials obtain aggregate data on energy consumption across the region, reported the Army. “Energy is such a vital requirement for community and economic development that it deserves to be planned for …

About 94 percent of the Navy’s more than 200,000 civilian employees will be forced to take unpaid days off before Sept. 30, according to guidance sent to senior officials. Employees most likely will be placed on furlough for 14 days, after the Pentagon determined last month that the fiscal 2013 spending bill provided sufficient operations funds to avoid requiring workers to take 22 unpaid days off. Furloughs are expected to begin in June. Despite alleviating some of the impact of the automatic spending cuts, “decisions need to be made on what we can keep, what can be rebalanced and which ship and aircraft maintenance can be deferred,” the guidance said, reported the Washington Post.

The residents of Valparaiso, Fla., may not be embracing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets at Eglin Air Force Base, but they have grown to accept the new supersonic and stealth aircraft and a noise profile that is louder than the aircraft it is replacing. The city had sued the Air Force over the noise, which resulted in a settlement that called for the installation located on the Florida Panhandle to take several steps to mitigate the sound, reported Military Times. Now leaders from other communities concerned about the impact of the F-35 are looking to Valparaiso for strategies to cope with the noise. It’s not clear how much louder the F-35 is than other aircraft because of the multiple variables affecting sound levels, according to the story. Valparaiso Mayor John Arnold says that so far the noise has been manageable, but he is concerned about the impact when Eglin’s F-35 fleet grows from 22 to 59.